Bicycle riders need extra safety in rain
Posted on Monday, August 18, 2008
Bicycle riders aren’t supposed to have to think about rain in August. But — surprise — rain descended from on high last week. With it came advice from 4-H bicycling mentor Willa Williams about what to do in a deluge.
Slick roads reduce a bike’s ability to stop safely, she advised her Hot Wheels 100 group — parents and youngsters training for the Big Dam Bridge 100 ’s 4-H Centennial Bike Ride. Mud and puddles can mask sharp objects or pits in the road, and the risk of flats increases. It’s just good sense to stay home.
But when you must ride in the rain or rain comes upon you when you’re already on the road, for instance, if it rains on the “BDB 100” Sept. 27, a few precautions are in order. “First, just as cars turn on their lights in the rain, we should as well,” she said. “Our lights and bike equipment are meant to hold up to a certain amount of moisture, and besides, our safety is worth more than a wet blinky light.” She also pulls out her reflective gear, the sort she’d use at night. “Metal grates and plates, railroad tracks, and painted lines get even slicker in the rain,” she said. “I always make it a habit not to ride on painted lines even in dry conditions. That way I am trained to avoid them in wet conditions.”
Finally, she urged them to wipe down their bikes with a dry towel when they return home and inspect tires, brakes and rims. Some people imagine that lightning isn’t a hazard for cyclists because tires are made of rubber and rubber is an insulator. But no, modern bicycle tires are made of synthetic rubber, not natural rubber, and those skinny strips offer no protection from the massive power of lightning. None. Here’s a relevant quote from the National Weather Service: “Do not ride into a lightning storm !” Exclamation point and italics are part of that advice.
Weird to be talking about rain safety in August, but there you go.
This week’s Hot Wheels ride at 6: 30 p. m. today meets at the Little Rock parking lot of the Big Dam Bridge and will follow the schedule posted at www. kidsa rus. org / centennial / bikeride. htm. Tonight little ones and their parents pedal two miles; teens aiming for the full BDB 100 will go farther.
This week’s adult schedule for the BDB 100 calls for:
Today: 9 miles at the pace you plan to ride the century.
Tuesday: 15 miles at tour pace.
Wednesday: 20 miles, brisk.
Thursday: rest.
Friday: 15 miles at tour pace.
Saturday: 50 miles at tour pace.
Sunday: 14 miles, easy.
In central Arkansas, the casual-pace training for adults at 7: 30 a. m. Saturday will have to do without its usual leaders. Tom Ezell and other members of the Arkansas Bicycle Club will be sweating through the Hotter’N Hell Hundred in Wichita Falls, Texas. Others are free to meet as usual at River Trail Rentals on the North Little Rock riverfront just west of the Interstate 30 bridge. Ezell can answer questions at (501 ) 912-1047.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
